ANSSI KASITONNI AT AMOS ANDERSON ART MUSEUM
The winner of the 2011 Ars Fennica Prize Anssi Kasitonni's exhibition is shown at Amos Anderson Art Museum 18.11.2011-30.1.2012. The retrospective show featuring sculptures and videos is an extensive review of Kasitonni's work.
The young Anssi Kasitonni is a multi-talented artist who works with sculpture and video. He chooses his methods and materials to reflect the subject at hand. His sculptures can feature things found in the trash bin just as well as store-bought objects. The rough-and-ready appearance and deliberate clumsiness of the pieces underline Kasitonni's unaffected attitude towards both subject matter and materials. The finished works carry a strong sense of discovery. In Kasitonni's hands, paperboard suffers the fate of Cinderella: it gets a gilded surface and gains entry into the salons of art, where it ostensibly belongs.
THE CANDIDATES
The canddates for Ars Fennica 2011 were: Video artist Adel Abidin, visual artist Terike Haapoja, visual artist Hannaleena Heiska, visual artist Anssi Kasitonni and photographic artist Pekka Luukkola
The Ars Fennica prize winner was chosen by the Serbian museum director Branislava Andjelkovic. She is also an art historian, curator and writer. Andjelkovic’s main interests are feminist visual theories, contemporary art, cultural policy, museums policy, strategies of display, art and ideology in totalitarian systems, and modernist art in the Yugoslavian region
ARS FENNICA 2010
Ars Fennica 2010 went to the Tampere-based artist Charles Sandison. His prize exhibition will be at Hämeenlinna Art Museum in the autumn 2011.
THE FOUNDATION
The Henna and Pertti Niemistö Ars Fennica Art Foundation was set up in 1990 to promote the visual arts, to open up new international contacts for the Finnish art world, and to encourage artists in their creative work.
The Ars Fennica art award is made annually to one artist in recognition of distinctive artistic output of high merit. The award includes a monetary prize of 34,000 euros, a catalogue of works by the winner and an exhibition tour of three Finnish art museums. The Ars Fennica is an internationally respected award and the biggest Finnish prize for visual art.
The Ars Fennica award committee puts up a list of candidates, from among whom an international art expert chooses the winner. As well as Finns, other Nordic, Baltic and St Petersburg artists have been short-listed. The prize committee consists of Leena Niemistö, MD, Doctor of Medicine, Berndt Arell, director, Elina Merenmies, painter, and Matti Peltokangas, sculptor.